Legoland Florida preps, gets Peely for new global Lego Festival

[Disney4me]

Legoland Florida and its visitors are participating in a global event with an emphasis on creative play and Fortnite videogame-inspired experiences. The Winter Haven theme park and six sister attractions in California, New York, England, Germany, Denmark and South Korea playing host to the Lego Festival, which begins Saturday.

“It is our first global event,” said Shay Davis, entertainment specialist at Legoland Florida. “So it is the first event that all Legoland parks are launching at the exact same time.”

The event is broken down into five new play zones – music, dance, creative, gaming and chill out.

“It’s very much like if you were to go to a music festival, all the different stages and all the different experiences,” Davis said.

So while participants may see a battle of the bands in the music zone, go to a dance party featuring DJ GoodVibes or meet Adventure Peely, the banana-ish Fortnite minifigure, there’s a building activity nearby too.

“If you love to build with Lego, every zone will have something, and it’s all customized to the zone as well,” Davis said. That includes adding to the Build & Bloom flower wall in the chill-out zone, where preschoolers also may encounter the Hopsy character.

The gaming zone has multiple activities, including a show with Fortnite-themed games.

“We also have just like a chill area where you can watch different YouTube streamers play through the game,” Davis said. “There’s a sushi bar in the game, and we’ve brought that to life in the gaming zone, where you can build sushi out of Lego bricks like you would in the game.”

There’s also a brick-built model of the Cuddle Team Leader from Fortnite. Legoland says the figure has more than 21,000 bricks and it took 75 hours for builders to complete.

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“Those who have played the game will walk into the gaming zone and definitely have their chance to nerd out about the game,” Davis said.

The festival will be held on Saturdays and Sundays between May 3 and June 8. It’s included with regular Legoland admission, and the park’s usual attractions also are available.

For ticketing and more information, go to legolandflorida.com.

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News nuggets

• Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens has added a Hurricane Simulator machine that recreates the winds on sounds of a Category 1 storm. Taking a spin in the contraption – about the size of a doublewide phone booth – costs $4. The Sanford attraction is again throwing its Sunset at the Zoo event on the fourth Friday of the month from May through September. First up: May 23, celebrating Native American and Alaska native heritage. More info: centralfloridazoo.org

• Sea Life Orlando Aquarium returns its Meet a Mermaid event this weekend with underwater shows, meet-and-greets on dry land and new interactive education stations. The performers will be on hand at the Icon Park attraction on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in May (plus Memorial Day) from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and in the water 11:30 a.m.- 1 p.m., 2-4 p.m. and 5-5:30 p.m. More info: VisitSeaLife.com/orlando

• The Orange County Regional History Center will introduce a pocket exhibit called “The 85ers,” which focuses on the first U.S. women’s national soccer team and its ties to Central Florida. It debuts May 10. More info: thehistorycenter.org

• Great Wolf Lodge recruited ‘N Sync members Joey Fatone and Lance Bass for a “It’s Gonna Be May” promotion which pushes discounted stays at the indoor water park resort in Naples as well as the 25th anniversary of the hit “It’s Gonna Be Me” song turned meme. More info: greatwolf.com/naples

• Odd study of the week: Epcot’s Spaceship Earth has been named the third most beautiful landmark in the U.S., based on the divine proportion formula. It trails Independence Hall in Philadelphia and Hoover Dam in Nevada while edging out St. Louis’ Gateway Arch. The study was touted by Level Frames, an online framing service.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. BlueSky: @themeparksdb. Threads account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

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